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Chapter 1519 Zhan Xinkou (3)

The enemy forces encircled north of Xinkou included the 34th, 39th, and 105th divisions, the 13th and 18th brigades, and the 32nd, 36th, and 40th brigades and regiments, plus two puppet divisions, with a total strength of 150,000. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Before the outbreak of the war, there was a general view in the Japanese military that one soldier could deal with at least four soldiers, and if it was formed into a combat combination such as a brigade, squadron, and squad, the combat strength would be doubled. According to the most optimistic estimates, the combat effectiveness of a brigade and a squadron and a division is comparable. When formulating strategies and tactics, staff officers usually consider them comprehensively in accordance with this kind of thinking.

In Tojo Hideki's mind, even if the two puppet divisions are deducted, according to the strength of the Japanese army on the front line of Xinkou, even if it is against the million-strong squadron, there is a chance of winning, so he never thought of failure. Although the Japanese military circles are now full of fear of the An Army, Tojo Hideki, who has never fought against the An Army, does not believe it in any way, thinking that this is just an excuse to shirk the incompetence and not pay more attention to the 30th Group Army stationed on the front line of Niangzi Pass from the beginning, so it will suffer such a big loss under the sudden surprise.

Now, the Japanese troops in the area north of Xinkou who are surrounded by the squadron are a little anxious.

On the southern front, the Japanese army was attacked by several times the number of its own squadrons, and although the battle line was immovable, it fought extremely hard. The squadron is not as incompetent as rumored at all, under the army commander, division commander, and regiment commander, the three armies are killed, although it often takes two or three people to exchange for the life of the devil, but the squadron, which has an absolute advantage in numbers, has given the Japanese army tremendous pressure.

On the western front, the 17th Division of the Anjia Army, like a nail, slowly squeezed from west to east, towards the hinterland position. The Japanese stubbornly resisted, but under the care of the Anjia fighters in the sky, the infantry guns, mortars, grenadiers, heavy machine guns and other heavy weapons were hit by the B2 fighters as soon as they opened fire, and the artillerymen and machine gunners became parts together with their weapons.

On the contrary, the 17th Division could use howitzers from the regimental artillery battalions, mortars and Gaoping dual-purpose machine guns equipped with company platoons, and rocket launchers for each squad, and the Japanese army was very suppressed. If it weren't for the fact that the Japanese had super-accurate marksmanship and a large number of melon grenade reserves, which brought great casualties to the An army, it is estimated that the battle line would have collapsed long ago.

To the north, although the squadron did not attack, they were rapidly building fortifications.

Once the fortifications are completed, and the communication ditches and anti-artillery holes are repaired, it will be extremely difficult to break through at that time.

Under these circumstances, the Japanese commanders in the encirclement gathered together for a little discussion, immediately mobilized the remaining anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, and carried out air defense operations around the artillery positions that were deliberately concealed in preparation for the attack of the Chinese Air Force, and at the same time began to organize forces to launch an attack on the 170th Division.

......

The sun was shining, and the 7th Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Brigade of the 170th Division was struggling to repair the fortifications on the hills of Xiaogang Village, three kilometers southeast of Yuanping County. ”

The soldier named Dashanzi looked childish, at best sixteen or seventeen years old, and was a new soldier who had just joined the army in Jinzhong in October last year. He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, raised his sour shoulders, and asked, "Battalion commander, is it useful for us to repair this?" The fighting is so fierce in the south and west, why don't we attack? ”

Tang Wen patiently explained: "Dashanzi, our task is to intercept the Japanese troops in the encirclement with no way to escape. Think about it, if we also participate in the attack, the little devil can calmly rush out of the gap of our attacking troops, now behind our back, Commander Lu is directing the troops to attack the city, if this chaotic army rushes over, it will bring great trouble to our siege troops, and the victory that could have been easily obtained has become confusing again, understand? ”

Dashanzi let out an "oh" as if he didn't understand, and began to raise the sapper shovel again and dig the fortifications.

A two-meter-wide and one-and-a-half-meter-deep jagged trench gradually took shape with the efforts of the officers and men, and at this moment, an earth-shattering explosion suddenly sounded not far away, and a huge fireball carried the entire ball of mud and rose into the air.

It was only after the explosion that the whistling of shells could be heard as they burst through the air, the effect of heavy artillery shells flying faster than the speed of sound.

At this time, a huge explosion was also heard on the surrounding positions, and a huge orange fireball rose one after another!

"Shelling! This is the shelling of devil artillery! Conceal it all! ”

Tang Wen, who threw himself into the trench when he heard the first explosion, saw some recruits standing on the edge of the trench in a daze, looking at the huge crater in front of the position in a daze.

The first to respond to the Japanese artillery bombardment were all veterans of the Anjia Army, and they clearly knew that this was the Japanese artillery firing the corrected shells and adjusting the firing angle, and the Japanese army was about to start a large-scale artillery bombardment.

The recruits finally reacted under the urging of the veterans, and the recruits who were close to the trench jumped quickly without adjusting their posture, and the recruits who were dozens of meters away from the trench rushed desperately to the trench.

"Quick! Fast! The devils are going to shell! ”

Tang Wen beckoned desperately, and a large number of recruits who ran in front jumped into the trenches one after another, lying in the dirt and gasping for breath. One of the two recruits who fell behind fell headlong into the large crater in front of the position, whether he slipped or stepped on the air.

"Pull me up!"

"Run! The shelling of the devils is about to begin! ”

The cry for help of the recruit who struggled to get up and the command of the battalion commander Tang Wen reached the ears of another recruit at the same time.

After a moment's hesitation, the standing recruits still bent down to pull their comrades who were struggling desperately in the crater, and only then did they grab their companions' arms with both hands, when they heard a dull explosion of "boom", and the two recruits were all dead in an instant, and their flesh and blood flew into the sky with the flying dirt, leaving only a large black hole on the ground with gunpowder smoke.

The Japanese army is desperate!

They bombarded the positions of the 170th Division to the north with hundreds of artillery pieces, including the remaining 75-mm infantry guns, 105-mm mountain guns, 120-mm howitzers, 150-mm howitzers, and field guns. Almost every second, dozens of shells fell on the positions of the defenders of the Anjia Army, and the dark red bullet marks like locusts flying in the sky roared from the two small hills of Pingdiquan and Tanglingang controlled by the Japanese army in the south.

Shells with a piercing whistling sound fell to the ground like a dense hail.

In an instant, the whole earth began to tremble violently as if there had been a great earthquake.

With a dull roar, clusters of black and red flames soared into the sky, and in the flames and thick gunsmoke, the mud that exploded into the air turned into a burst of mud rain and sprinkled on the ground.

The Japanese artillery that had been fired accurately hit the position of the 170th Division, and the trenches were buried by the falling mud, and some trenches that were unfortunately directly hit by heavy shells collapsed, and the flesh and soil of countless officers and men who were lying there to avoid the shelling fused together.

All kinds of shells fell to the ground, and no "boom" explosions could be heard, and all that could be felt was a series of roars like rolling thunder. The soaring flames formed terrifying walls of fire on the ground, and the raging waves of air flew in all directions, and the stones and sand mixed with the mutilated flesh and blood were swept into the air, and when they fell to the ground, only piles of sand and stones that could be crumpled into powder remained.

In order to open up the road to the north, the Japanese artillery of various calibers covered the positions of the 170th Division over and over again, and the trenches and fortifications that had been painstakingly managed were blown up and mutilated in the flames that rose into the sky.

The veterans of the An Jia Army, who had experienced many battles, could still rely on their tenacious will to huddle in the trenches and endure the endless explosions, but when the recruits who were replenished at the end of last year had seen such a scene, cries and screams came and went one after another on the various positions.

Tang Wen's heart was full of anxiety, he was a veteran who participated in the battle in eastern Hebei last year, and he felt very helpless about the performance of the recruits in front of him, the scene of the Japanese bombing in Jixian County for a day was much more tragic than now, and the brothers survived hard for a day and a night, and then broke through the Japanese army's first line and successfully withdrew to the rear. The intensity of the shelling now is fundamentally pediatric compared to the original, but the situation is much worse.

By this time, some of the recruits had begun to cry from small to high-pitched ones.

Fear is contagious, and even the veterans who have been holding on to the recruits are starting to get irritable. Tang Wen finally couldn't help it anymore and ordered loudly: "Cover their mouths!" Then he made a gesture to cover his mouth.

The veterans suddenly came to their senses and covered the mouths of the recruits who were crying frantically with their hands. A few recruits who had lost their minds actually bit the hands of the veterans fiercely, and the veterans who were in tears of pain kept silent and let the blood flow.

......

Just when the Japanese launched the artillery bombardment, the B2 bomber group hovering in the sky was furious! It was unbearable to complete the firepower build-up under his nose and bring a large number of casualties to the army, so he immediately threw himself at Pingdiquan and Tanglin Gang, where the Japanese artillery was assembled.

One after another, the B2 bombers, with a terrifying hiss, swooped down and began to attack the place where the shells were fired.

On the ground, the Japanese army gathered 24 Type 99 88mm anti-aircraft guns and 32 Type 96 triple 25mm anti-aircraft guns that all the troops had barely gathered, and launched an anti-air attack, and suddenly caught off guard, three B2 bombers were hit and disintegrated in the air explosion, and two B2 bombers dragged the smoke and struggled to get rid of the dense barrage and flew to the southeast.

But little Japan was not having a good time, and a string of bombs fell on the artillery positions, bringing great lethality, so that the shelling began less than a quarter of an hour, and the Japanese artillery fire was again dumb.

......

Yang Jiuxiao, who set up his headquarters in Sanquan Village, witnessed this scene in the telescope and said to Major General Li Jun, commander of the 170th Division, with a grim expression:

"The Japanese army is more tenacious than we imagined, you say hello to the brigades, the Japanese army is likely to have more than these hidden firepower, so that the soldiers should be vigilant and pay attention to every move of the Japanese army."

Li Jun nodded, walked to the side, and after explaining to Zhang Fengyun, the head of the operations section, he walked back to Yang Jiuxiao's side:

"Now the equipment of the troops has come up, but the combat effectiveness has dropped a lot. I didn't see anything in the training on weekdays, but when I got to the battlefield, I found that there were so many problems. By now, the divisional political department has arrested twenty-two deserters, which has never been seen in the history of our army. ”

Qu Muchen, who was standing beside Yang Jiuxiao, took over the conversation a little helplessly: "There are too many recruits in the army, and Commander Lu insists on recruiting recruits locally in Shanxi, saying that it is not to add trouble to the headquarters, and at the same time, because it is to defend his hometown, the recruits' will to fight should be better than that of soldiers in other places." Seriously, I haven't seen any strength in these recruits' will to fight until now......"

Li Jun thought deeply: "Yes, from last year to this year, our division has recruited too many new recruits to join the army, and there are many grassroots officers promoted by rockets...... But Chief of Staff, don't say it, there are really a lot of good seedlings among them, and there are many newly promoted non-commissioned officers and officers in our division, who eat, live and sleep with the soldiers, and take care of everything in every detail, and their ideological consciousness is not low! ”

Yang Jiuxiao smiled, and just wanted to talk, when he suddenly saw a large area of gunpowder smoke and fire in Pingdiquan and Tanglingang, obviously a new round of artillery bombardment by the Japanese army had started again, and he couldn't help but scold: "Dog, how many artillery are hidden......